Email This Page

Your Name

Your Email

To (separate emails with commas)

Message (optional)

Send

Your email was sent successfully.

Close

March 6, 2012

Of all the world's auto shows, the Geneva Motor Show has traditionally served as one of opulence and design. It's also increasingly been where some of the top sports cars, supercars, and prestige luxury cars take a bow.

Just as the Swiss city serves as a middle ground in so many other ways, it appears to have that same effect on the vehicles that mainstream automakers chose to unveil. There were few of the farther-off green-car concepts we've seen at some of the other shows; instead, debuts were tempered to several full-line premium small cars, including the Mercedes-Benz A Class and Audi A3—both of which might be headed to the U.S. in their new forms.

While more hybrid and plug-in vehicles were still well-represented, the lusty poster-car exotics were at Geneva in full force, including all-new models from Lamborghini, Bugatti, and Ferrari.

If Geneva were to have a headliner—and a poster car—it might very well be the Lamborghini Aventador J, which the automaker called “the most uncompromising open super sports car of its entire history,” With the Aventador supercar's 700-horsepower, V-12 engine, an ISR transmission, pushrod suspension, and all-wheel drive, it's one very expensive one-off garage-queen, capable of getting to 60 mph in well under three seconds. That's right; Lamborghini will build only one—paying tribute to the legendary 1970 Lamborghini Jota.

The Bugatti Veyron Super Sport is already one of the world's fastest cars—capable of reaching 286 mph. Now, if you can even conceive of such a thing, Bugatti's taken it topless (with a removable targa-style roof) at Geneva, with the Veyron Grand Sport Vitesse, which packs the same 1,200-horsepower, 8.0-liter quad-turbo V-16. And the powder-blue lower bodywork gives this supercar some unexpected panache.

The Geneva Motor Show is also where Ferrari's all-new F12 Berlinetta gets the official nod. The voluptuous new supercar is the fastest Ferrari road car ever—and the fastest—and features a new 729-hp, 6.3-liter V-12. Its 0-60 mph time is just 3.1 seconds, with a top speed of more than 211 mph.

Porsche's Boxster isn't an exotic, or a supercar, but it's one of our favorite sports cars. And the Stuttgart automaker chose Geneva to roll out the all-new, aluminum-bodied 2013 Boxster. With more engine power and less weight, it's quicker than ever, and it gets the 911's new electromechanical steering and Porsche Torque Vectoring. Expect to see this new model line on U.S. streets beginning this summer.